: Dark patterns (DPs) are manipulative design strategies that exploit players’ cognitive biases, often at their expense. DP in games can negatively affect players’ experiences by coercing them into unwanted behaviors, often without informed consent. While previous research has categorized DPs and explored their impacts, an empirical evaluation of their perceived harmfulness remains unexplored. This study aims to create a catalog of DP and evaluate players’ perceptions of them to gather insights into how they are experienced and understood by players. We extracted DPs and their definitions from prior academic work, refining them with examples from community forums. To evaluate players’ perceptions, we developed a survey to assess each DP’s harmfulness, problematic nature, and prevalence.
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Dark Patterns in Games: An Empirical Study of Their Harmfulness
A survey was developed to assess each DP’s harmfulness, problematic nature, and prevalence and provide valuable insights into players’ perceptions of DPs and how they may be unaware of these patterns, aiming to raise awareness and reduce their use in game design.